Angels put an end to Astros’ good feeling, win streak

There was a positive mood in Minute Maid Park before Saturday night’s game.

The Astros were in high spirits — laughing, joking and catching a few minutes of the hyped Texas A&M-Alabama football game that was airing on the giant screen over right field during batting practice.

The Astros were coming off a four-game win streak headed into the second game of their series with the Angels.

The feeling wouldn’t last as the Astros lost 6-2, falling to 51-97 on the season.

The Angels (71-77) took the lead in the third inning when catcher Chris Iannetta hit a solo home run.

In the fourth, the Angels’ bats caught fire as Howie Kendrick and Kole Calhoun had back-to-back RBI doubles, and Iannetta drove in Calhoun with a single to increase the lead to 4-0.

In the bottom of the fourth, the Astros got on the board thanks to a Brett Wallace home run, his 13th of the season.

It looked like an Astros comeback was coming in the fifth Marwin Gonzalez, Jonathan Villar and Jose Altuve hit consecutive two-out singles to load the bases, but Trevor Crowe struck out looking to end the inning.

An unfamiliar foe

Angels pitcher Jered Weaver (10-8) pitched six innings, striking out five to boost his career total to 1,234 — the fourth most in Angels history.

Despite playing 18 times this season, the Astros had not yet faced Weaver.

“He is one of their better pitchers,” manager Bo Porter said. “He spent sometime on the DL so we hadn’t seen him yet this year. He is a guy that has five pitches, and he will throw them in any count. He has a lot of confidence in all his pitches.”

Brett Oberholtzer (4-3) pitched the first six innings for the Astros, allowing four runs on six hits. He struck out four.

“When you look at the overall body of work, he did a good job getting the game to the sixth inning,” Porter said. “But I also think that he just didn’t have that pinpoint command, that late life we had seen in a lot of his previous starts. His breaking ball didn’t have that depth that we were used to and accustomed to.”

Angels add insurance

The Angels extended their lead to 5-2 in the seventh inning when Andrew Romine scored on a passed ball.

They added one more run in the ninth when Grant Green went home on a Romine sacrifice fly.

Altuve was a bright spot for the Astros, going 3-for-4.

He has four three-hit games and one four-hit game in this month.

“He is not a guy I worry about,” Porter said. “When have the kind of work ethic this guys has, he is going to hit.”